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Bouy Vannor, 46, is a victim of the heavy floods in 2000 in the Mekong Delta that killed 500 people, making it one of the worst floods in recent history. He lives in Binh Thanh Dong commune in the Phu Tan district of An Giang province, southern Vietnam.

His body is skinny, his eyesight bad. The 2000 floods destroyed most of his farm's produce, making him even poorer, he rues. It was under these circumstances that daughter travelled north into Cambodia.

"My daughter, just 13, was persuaded to cross the border to live and to (work as a) prostitute in Phnom Penh. But she has been rescued by the United Nations in Cambodia and brought to the Youth Rehabilitation Centre in Ho Chi Minh City," said Bouy Vannor.

Binh Thanh Dong commune, bordering Takeo province in Cambodia, was one of 549 communes in the Mekong Delta that were nearly destroyed by the 2000 floods.

According to research by the Terre Des Hommes organisation, in just one commune, Binh Thanh Dong, about 167 women and children of 147 families have crossed the border into Cambodia, many to become prostitutes there, as well as in their own country. Some young girls came back home with HIV.

The commune's chief, Nguyen Minh Duc, said that the floods destroyed most of the commune's infrastructure. "Many local people have crossed the border to do business in Cambodia. Some people return, but some don't. Sometimes they come back just to ask others to go with them. Poverty caused by the heavy floods pushed them to migrate to find new jobs," said Duc.

Officials say the number of Vietnamese migrants to Cambodia has increased in the years since the heavy floods, but Cambodia does not have official data on this.

A Cambodian immigration officer at the Bavet border crossing with Vietnam, who asked not to be named, said the number of Vietnamese people who have been crossing the border for business is increasing. Some cross the border at official checkpoints, but others go through 'unofficial' ways.

There are several reasons why Vietnamese cross the border, but the common reason is the same one that drives migration elsewhere in the Mekong region and beyond - the desire to have a better life.

Ngeang Vannhong, a motor-taxi driver in Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City, complained that he only earns about 50,000 dong (3.17 U.S. dollars) per day, an amount that makes it very hard to make ends meet.

Yes, he says, some of his friends have told him it would be easier to earn money in Cambodia than in Vietnam. "I'm now looking for a way to live there too, but I don't know what to do because I'm so poor. I don't have any money to get a passport," he said. "I'm afraid of crossing the border because I don't even know anyone in Cambodia."

In the last few years, officials have been saying that deforestation caused the heavy floods in Cambodia and Vietnam in 2000.

The state of the forests in Vietnam is far from good, writes Ngo Ut, director of Vietnam's Forest Inventory and Planning Institute, in an article about forestry management.

In Vietnam, the amount of forest has decreased from 14.3 million hectares in 1943 to 11.3 million hectares in 2001. Another eight million hectares have no forests. Ngo Ut said that forests in Vietnam, especially sparse forest, have less than 70 cubic metres of wood per hectare -- highlighting the deterioration of the environment.

"One of my sons who was just four years old drowned because of the heavy floods in 2000," said May Van Sanh, a poor Vietnamese farmer who was a victim of the heavy flooding in the Dong Heap commune of Mon district, Can Tho province.

"Most of my property was destroyed. So I became poor. I believe there must be forest destruction in Vietnam as well as in Cambodia that caused this heavy flood. Businessmen earn much money from cutting trees. They never think about the difficulties of the victim. I put blame to all of them about this problem," May Van Sanh added.

"After the floods, I heard about the border crossing of Vietnam victims to live in Cambodia, but I've never thought about how to get there," Sanh said. "The Vietnamese government helps me improve my standard of living. Now my life is getting better."

Dr Nguyen Huu Chiem, head of the Department of Environment and Natural Resource Management at Can Tho University's Faculty of Agriculture, blamed the demand for forest products by rich people in other countries for adding pressure on the environment. "This causes the floods and illegal border crossing into Cambodia," he said.

"People need wood from Asian countries such as Cambodia and Indonesia. So the need for wood is destroying the forests in Cambodia. Logging companies in Cambodia bring a lot of wood to sell to Vietnamese companies. I know that there are still Cambodian and Vietnamese logging companies (working) together to bring wood to sell in Vietnam,'' he added. Chiem said he has suggested that the two governments cooperate to address this problem.

"I don't blame poor Vietnamese people who have gone to Cambodia … I think international organisations, especially the Mekong River Commission, should seek a suitable way to prevent flood disasters. Also they should liberate Vietnamese people from poverty by giving them many jobs to do in their country, without having to illegally migrate to Cambodia," said Chiem.

Nguyen Thi Lap, director of the natural disaster committee of Can Tho, said there were a lot of reasons for the heavy floods in 2000 in the Mekong Delta. "We think deforestation in Cambodia is one of the reasons. The main reason is the construction of dams in the People's Republic of China," she said.

"I knew about the migration of Vietnamese to work and do business in Cambodia, but it is not only because of the floods. The overall reason for migration is poverty. The trafficking of Vietnamese women along the Cambodia-Vietnam border is also the cause of illegal immigration," said Lap.

The dams being blamed for the unusual flooding include the Manwan and Xiaowan dams in China's southern Yunnan province, on the upper reaches of the Mekong River.

"If China still builds dams and trees continue to be cut in Cambodia, the floods along the Mekong Delta will still be a big problem and we cannot prevent it," said Lap.